The Grey NATO – 307 – Talking Tudor And The Pelagos FXD GMT
Published on Thu, 07 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
In this episode of The Gray NATO, hosts James Stacy and Jason Heaton discuss several topics, with the main focus being the new Tudor Pelagos FXD GMT watch. Jason shares his fresh impressions after seeing the watch in person, describing its features, design elements, and how it compares to other Tudor GMT models. They also announce a new merchandise collection for The Gray NATO shop, called the "PIP at 8" collection, designed in collaboration with Tony of the Illustrated Watch.
The hosts also discuss personal updates, including Jason's issues with water leaks in his Jeep and James finally solving a persistent water leak in his Defender. The episode concludes with final notes including an announcement about Force Fins going out of business and television recommendations including the second season of Special Ops Lioness and the documentary "After Antarctica" about polar explorer Will Steger.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacy | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray NATO. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches this episode 307. And it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you're listening and interested in supporting the show, visit TheGrayNATO.com for more details. My name is James Stacy, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing today? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, I'm doing pretty well. It's a rainy, what is it? It's a Tuesday, a little later than our normal time. It's a Tuesday afternoon. |
| James Stacy | Tuesday afternoon, but... Yeah, we're shifting the schedule a lot these days. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Right. Now it's good. Keeps us on our toes. But it certainly feels like November here, although it's a little warmer. It does. But it's been kind of gray and damp and whatever else. But I think You know, my life hasn't been terribly interesting since we talked last, but I think we should let's I just am excited to announce some big news for the TGN shop. Yeah, this is cool. Our long promised new merchandise drop. This is a kind of a capsule collection that we worked on with one of the talented graphic designers among the TGN crew, and that is Tony of the Illustrated Watch fame. Tony did a great job with putting together a really cool, very simple, but really cool and clever, um, kind of logo or design that we are now featuring on a number of new products that are in the TGN shop. So we've got, um, kind of a heavyweight sweatshirt hoodie. We've got a couple of new t-shirts. There's a coaster, like a cork coaster. Um, and, and then an enamel where a camp mug, which I I've been wanting to do for years. I think those are just awesome. And then, In addition to that, we also have kind of a standard TGN logo camp mug as well. So, you know, buy two, buy one or the other, whatever. But I'm really excited about this capsule collection, which we're calling the PIP at 8 collection. And for those insiders in the TGN crew, you'll know what that means. And James will explain that in a little bit here, but as with kind of our previous t-shirt drops, we're working with Printful, which is a fulfillment company. So all of this merchandise, this new stuff that's dropping, is being printed on demand at various locations around the world, basically, and then shipped to you from kind of the closest location, which is kind of cool. But certainly if you add on a strap or something from the shop, that still comes from me here in Minneapolis, so that ships separately. This is stuff we're really excited about. I think people would really be thrilled with it. And, you know, some hints were dropped and people made some guesses and got pretty close, but we're excited about this. |
| James Stacy | Oh, we definitely are. So we're talking about a hoodie, two different t-shirts, the coasters, the enamel mug. And then if you don't want to do the pipette eight, which is a, it's a reference to an insidery thing on the Slack, you know, about 2000 of you will know exactly what. what we're talking about. And look, the truth is, to those of you who are left in the dark, come check out the Slack. You'll understand it quickly. This is an inside joke. It's a reference to one of the very early days of the Slack and this idea of bezel position. It's not something we talk about. We don't talk about or explain the concept sort of outside of the Slack. If you're okay with the connection, it's kind of like our shibboleth, which is like a word that's kind of difficult to pronounce. I've explained this concept on the show before and certainly it was, you know, highlighted by the West Wing years ago, but it's sort of like an insidery thing. We really wanted to get this on a shirt. Tony came through with a design that was perfect in both its level of detail and its minimalism, which left us a lot of latitude in how we use it. And to be honest, I'm super pumped that we're finally doing a hoodie. it's the right season to have something with a little bit more weight to it. I'm excited to see this stuff. Jason's seen it in person. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And, uh, and yeah, so that's the, the pipette collection in association or collaboration with the illustrated watch, AKA Tony, who's on the Slack. And I'm just, I'm so excited about this. I'm, I'm, you know, I don't, I typically I wear shirts and stuff that don't have anything on them. And seeing these, I really tried to make things where I would go like, you know, where is my, my blue Pippa date shirt or that sort of thing. Where is that hoodie? I want to find that and wear that. So it's a little bit of fun. It's an inside joke for, for the slack and that sort of thing, which I think is kind of perfect. And then I think it also establishes something we hope to do quarterly if we can, which is we have several really incredible designers and design groups and teams and that sort of thing in the Slack, including one that we're interfacing with for another project entirely different than merch. But I finally saw the results or the first draft of that last night, and Jason, I sent it to you, and it's super exciting. So we really have an incredible amount of talent. And as I said on even just a very recent episode, Jason and I are not designers. The best that we can do is look at something and tell you if we like it or not. We can't make it. I made our first logo. If you remember back, you know, the better part of eight years ago. And it sucked. And we developed from there. And, you know, our logo was designed by a real designer, a talented man. And yeah, so I'm super pumped about this. We really wanted to get something in, in time for the holiday season. You know, if you've got a loved one that would love to get you something that's not super expensive, but is useful and fun and that sort of thing, I think these are good options. And yeah, obviously we're available via the Slack if you have any questions about it. And if you're not on the Slack and you have questions about it, please just drop us an email at thegraynadoatgmail.com. That's the most direct way to get to us. But I'm super pumped to see this come out. And I really hope this... We'll know from some numbers pretty quickly, but I hope this is something where we'll end up with a budget where we can invest in a new design for the spring and then again for summer and all that kind of stuff. So we've got some cool ideas, but it was fun to start with Tony, you know, his artwork is on my wall in my office. And just having that connection and keeping it in the slack is just really, it's exactly what I want from this sort of experience. And if we're going to offer, if we're going to offer things like merch, like let's make it exciting. And again, you and I aren't designers. We're not at the point where we can hire a full-time designer, you know, we're not Hoonigan or whatever, but we can come up with some cool t-shirts thanks to Tony's help and in the future, other designers as well. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And just to close out on this, um, we should probably tell, tell people where it is. Um, it's at the gray, nato.com slash shop. So simple enough. We're so bad at this. Yeah. We can't design and we can't market. Yeah. Right. |
| James Stacy | But yeah, you can check out that and the entire lineup of t shirts that we already have, including the TGN and containment kerchief climb set. And of course, the TGN namestake strap is all available at the great NATO dot com slash shop. And if you have any concerns, questions, et cetera, just drop us a note. We'll get to it ASAP. It's good to have that out in the world, no? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I'm excited. And good timing. I mean, maybe in spite of ourselves, here we are just before the holidays. We did a gift giving episode last week. Now we've actually got some potential gifts here. So super exciting. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Yeah. And then other than that, man, I've been slammed with work. I was traveling last week and now I'm home. And then now I got very last minute just a couple days ago. tied into a trip to Vancouver, which, of course, anyone listening will know I'm not going to complain. So that was a very quick yes, but we record this and then I have like two hours of meetings and then I go to the airport and I probably have to take a meeting before I get on a plane. But then once I'm on that, once that plane takes off, your boy's not even buying the Wi-Fi. I'm going to edit some photos of the watch we're talking about today and some video of the new Tudor Pelagos FXD GMT. But that's all essentially I've been up to. That's why we pushed it a little later today. I was able to So let me back up a little bit while I just preface what we'll eventually get to in this episode. When the watch dropped last week, Mark Kosarich covered it for Houdinki because I was busy working on other stuff. And we saw some comments both on the Slack and on Houdinki and that just saying like, this seems like the watch James should have reviewed. And my intention was always to get to it, but I wanted to see the watch in person. I think it's really helpful, especially, you know, I have a very specific sort of idea of what I want from a Tudor GMT. you know, whether or not this alliance will get to in a few minutes, but I wanted to see it in person before I really weighed in. So thankfully, Cole was able to connect with the Toronto team here and they had some time, but it was the exact time that we normally record the show. So we had to delay the show. So that way I'm fresh back. I mean, fresh after an hour and a half of downtown Toronto traffic to go like 18 kilometers. I'm fresh back and at the office and and not too angry, but I did get to see the watch and it was pretty cool. So let's Let's get to that in just a moment. What else have you been up to in the last... I guess it's a little bit more than a week because we recorded the last one early. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And to be honest, it's all a bit of a blur. I mean, my day is this routine of two dog walks and maybe some running and cycling in the middle and a little bit of work and whatever. But I guess the significant news on my end was given some of the rain we've had, I was finally able to identify this This maddening water leak that I've had in the Defender for years, I think ever since I've owned it. These vehicles are not exactly watertight to begin with, I think. But I have caulked every seam in the aluminum roof and I put new window seals in for the alpine windows and my cottage. every totally I mean every time I would leave the house and after it would rain I would be driving down the street and at the first stop sign I would step on the brakes and inexplicably there's an inner gutter like like the rain gutter on the outside of the car there's an equal one on the inside of the car maybe for this reason So any water that gets in would run down to the front of the car, and I'm sitting on the right side because it's a right-hand drive, and it would pour off the end of this gutter right into my lap. So it looked like I peed my pants every time. And I was maddening. I did all of this troubleshooting, looked for this thing. I was going to have a friend get up on a ladder with a power washer and just spray it while I was inside, et cetera. And then two days ago, I went out. This is really nerdy stuff. But I got in the back. And there are these two air vents over the back door that apparently Land Rover put in to aid in sort of air circulation inside. But they only had it featured on the Defender for like two model years before they discontinued it because it was causing like exhaust fumes to circulate inside or something. Goodness. So they got rid of it. But the one of them was had this was like some of the fins on the this plastic vent were cracked and it was allowing water to just dribble in and then fill up this rain gutter on the inside. And then that was the problem. So I, I've ordered a set of new plastic vent covers. Um, but in the meantime, I just took a strip of gorilla tape and taped shut the vent. And lo and behold, um, yesterday's rain and today's rain. I have my knee, my right knee has been dry. So I believe I have finally identified it. And that's been the thrill of my week. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Nicely done. I, uh, that's hilarious. The, because my, my Jeep has a water leak as well. Mine is right. So the mind for people who might be new, I, you know, I have a 2011 Wrangler that I absolutely love and mechanically it's in really nice shape, but the body isn't. It's old. It wasn't well-made to begin with. It's been in, it's hit a couple of trees at the cottage. It was hit in Philadelphia. It, you know, I, I, I'm piecing it back together, but I treat it like a tractor and that's what I'm comfortable with. The roads around here are terrible. Winter's very hard. It's already rusted. This is not something I'm precious about. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | But if you don't seat like mine's, you know, it's an 11. So I have, what's called the freedom panels. Oh, I was wondering about that. Yeah. That front roof element, which is just fiberglass and like, you know, rubber, um, what's the term for it? Not a gasket. Um, it's a gasket, but it's huge. It's for the size of a door for a watch or whatever, or an engine part. Um, the, the name I'm thinking of might come to me in a moment, but I think people know what I mean. And if you don't seat everything correctly, specifically in the middle where the two panels there's two panels, one over each person in the front where they meet. If you don't seat that right at the front of the windshield, then yeah, when I break, when it's been raining, it just drips and it drips right where my phone is, just above the MMI. But if I get it, if I don't do it, like half the time, I'm not even thinking when I put the roof on or off, I just take it off. I take it off, you put it back on, you put it back. It's not that big a deal. I do it a lot. Even like well into November, like today was 25 Celsius. driving down to Rolex side, all four windows down. I definitely should have taken the top off and I didn't. Anyways, I'm rambling in such an aggressive fashion currently, but yeah, it'll leak right on you. So for a long time, you just kind of like knew it was coming and would just kind of wipe it off the dash. But I have learned that if I'm just a little bit slower in fitting the top so that the little gasket doesn't fold over on itself. And it works fine and you just have to keep it nice and tight. But yeah, these things with old vehicles, it's the fun of it. I, to be clear, I would take the occasional water leak and some rust over the complexity of a truly modern vehicle these days. Yeah, I agree. That's super annoying when it gets you wet. Yeah. Like dripping inside the car. Let's be clear. From about now until April, some part of the Jeep is wet and rusting all the time. I figure they only put carpet in it, so I couldn't see it happening as I was driving. But it's a little different when it's like, my phone, my wallet, and brake for the first light, and now they're both getting dripped on. |
| Jason Heaton | As long as the passenger stays dry, at least he can be a good host. |
| James Stacy | But yeah, how about a quick round of wrist checks? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I can predict what you're wearing today. I should have followed suit, but I decided to go with a bit of a left turn today. I have kind of a deep cut on today, pardon the pun, but I put on my Aquastar Deepstar, which I honestly have not worn in many months. |
| James Stacy | And the first of the reissues, the 40. |
| Jason Heaton | Yes. Yeah. With that silvery kind of sunburst dial. And I've been wearing it for several days and I'm loving it all over again. It's got a good number of scratches. When I first got this watch, I wore it nonstop for months and I still love it. Same. Falling in love with it again. Funny thing is it's making a really fun kind of dog walking watch because I like to do like a half hour walks with Ruby, my new dog here, and I like to time it. So if I'm wearing like a dive watch, I'll just set the bezel and go and turn around at 15 minutes or thereabouts. Well, this of course has this giant 30 minute counter, you know, in kind of a reverse panda thing. So very easy to see. And I just click start on the chronograph and set off and lo and behold, we're home in 30 minutes. So it's fun for that. And yeah, I'm just kind of loving this watch all over again. So it's good. I should have worn a Pelagos, but I was wearing that quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. So I figured I'd change up a bit. But you are, you've come proper today, so to speak. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I'm back on the 39. I mean, to be fair, I wear it all the time. I recently put it back on the bracelet because I wanted to have that in my mind when trying the FXD GMT on the included strap. Of course, they still don't have a bracelet for these. They're kind of by design. This is a non-bracelet watch. But yeah, I wanted to have that a day or two of context to remind myself of why I think the 39 is the dive watch that you could buy. And certainly there are more extreme dive watches. The rest of the Pelagos line is a good example. But I don't know there's any that kind of hit the mix of size, convention, style, and outright just no fuss as the 39. Because it is just so conventional. It's just a 9401 that he made for today. And I still really like it. But obviously, we talk really quite a bit about Tudor. And I would say we are going to do even more today. So I might as well dive into the... the sort of main topic, which is going to be, yeah, sort of just a chat about the FXD Zulu time. So it came out last Thursday. And we had obviously recorded the episode early. And even if we'd recorded on Tuesday, we wouldn't have known. It's very unlikely or infrequent, whatever term you might want to use, for Tudor to do embargoes or advance notice. Like you'll know something's coming because they'll post teasers, but they almost never tell unless you're involved on like a trip. And to be clear, like even when we, when we, and some of the TGN crew went to Florida a couple of years back, not quite, well, yeah, I guess a couple of years. So yeah, when we were all in Florida, unless I'm misremembering this, we, we found out about the watch while we were standing at the Maine and the Sea Museum, like at the presentation. So this is, you know, Rolex and Tudor, they protect the surprise. I was supposed to be on a press trip for this watch to the south of France last week, coming back on Halloween, and that got canceled. So there's a chance I might have known early about the watch because I was going on a trip, but even then I kind of doubt it. And with this most recent one, it came out a couple hours after we published the episode. So we're a week behind for sure, which I'm fine with. That's just life. But got to go in and see it today. And just in case people are living under a Tudor rock of some sort. So it's an FXD, but with a GMT movement. Very, very similar movement to what is in the 58 GMT. and 42 millimeters, 12.7 thick. So that's notable because it is considerably thinner than the BB Pro. And it seems, and the people from Tudor seem to agree, that a lot of it seems to be in the way they've been able to integrate the movement with the case. So it ends up being very similar in thickness to the standard FXD, but you now have a complication. Technically, too, because there's a date on this model. It is a GMT, and I think GMTs without a date are kind of strange. So it makes sense. And obviously, the movement they're pulling from has a date. So it would be weird if there had never been a date on a Pelagos. But of course, the original Pelagos had a date. It's really just with the FXD and the 39 that no date stuff kind of started to play into it. 52 millimeters lug to lug. It measures long, but that's with the fixed lugs. I think a lot of people would say that the lug to lug is very similar to the standard Pelagos model, which is 42 and just maybe just a hair under 50, 49 and a half, 50 millimeters lug to lug. It's gray to titanium. This has a matte black dial. You have kind of a beige coloring for the markers and hands. and also on the bezel, which is now a 24-hour bezel. I think maybe the weirdest part of this watch is the 24-hour bezel. But this is yet kind of the second one made with the Commando Hubert. With the first one, the original FXD MN21, we had a countdown bezel instead of an elapsed time bezel. So it seems like they at least have a format of like, we need to do something else with the bezel. And the idea with this watch, the conceit behind it is that it's connected with the French Navy's aeronautical element. So helicopter pilots and that sort of thing, and the ability to very quickly kind of treat it like a GMT Master, which it essentially is from a functional standpoint. So it's a flyer GMT with a bi-directional 24-hour bezel and a fourth hand being this very cool orange GMT hand. I think it's an interesting thing to see in person and to finally get a chance to take a look at it. It's got mixed color lume, which is kind of novel for a Pelagos in that the dial and hands are blue, and then the bezel is green. And to be clear, I could have that backwards. I don't have the lume shot right in front of me. I think it still makes a lot of sense. It is, I think, the weirdest Pelagos to date because it doesn't have a dive bezel of any type. Yeah. I saw a lot of comments, obviously, on Hodinkee, some on the Slack, saying like, oh, this is James's watch. This is the watch James should have. I wonder what James thinks. And I love that. I'm glad that people have attached some interest in my now fairly qualified addiction to GMT watches. And I think this one, for me, I understand it in the Pelagos world, sort of. but it still isn't the one that I want. And I feel like I've said this now with several passing watches, where, you know, for me, I feel like years ago, I outlined that it would be a Pelagos that still has a dive bezel and a 24-hour re-out. So it's not a true GMT, if you will. It's more of a twin time scenario. But Tudor has all the bits they need to make that, and they still chose to make this one. And so I think we address it on that front. But it is a kind of an interesting continuation of this scenario that Tudor currently has with deep Tudor enthusiasts, where people are excited about the watch, but it seems like people, and myself included, are making buying decisions based on very small details. I don't really like the coloring. I don't really like the this. I don't really like that. It's close otherwise. For me, I think the one that you have, which it seems people on the internet are calling the USN, the black FXD, is perfect. Yeah, yeah. |
| Unknown | I agree. |
| James Stacy | If you had given me the task, I would approach a black FXD the same way I'd approach a Tudor Pelagos 39. And that would be maintain the bezel and just add a re-ut that gives you 24-hour time and add the hand. But I'm a broken record on this. This has been years and years and years. And clearly, Tudor has other plans. So we should probably approach it from that standpoint. Right. Jason, when you saw this, when you saw the original few photos, the stuff that wasn't live, what do you think? What do you think of the tan loom, of the red coloring, the 24-hour bezel? |
| Jason Heaton | I'm looking at this lovely lay flat shot or whatever, the press photo that's on the Hodinkee review that Mark wrote. And kind of blew it up big on my screen here. And I'm smitten. I mean, this is a beautiful watch and I love the aesthetics of it are great. I mean, I'm a huge FXD fan. Anyway, I've got the black one, as you mentioned. I've always liked the idea of, and this goes against the grain with a lot of enthusiasts, but I don't mind tan or faux tina or tan lume that a lot of people dislike. It just looks attractive. And on this watch, it just warms up what is otherwise kind of a stark watch to begin with, as well as the bit of orange. This reminds me a bit of the coloring and why I was so smitten with the LHD Pelagos. It had that slight bit of tan lume. I like the look of the 24 hour bezel. I think it adds this, um, just different look to it. And there's just more going on in this watch with the date, with the orange, with the big GMT hand, et cetera. Having said all that, this is not the watch for me. I'm, I've, I've tried to like GMT watches, like pure GMT watches, and they just don't make sense for me. They just don't, I mean, sorry, they make sense in function. I get what they're all about. For me, for my personal use, it's just not a complication that I care to own or that I really feel like I need. I think if you have something like a 12-hour bezel, like we've discussed, or a 24-hour hand in addition to something else, like a dive watch, Great, but a pure GMT is just not the one for me. Aesthetically, I think this is a home run. I think it's a spectacular looking watch and it's beautiful. And if I had it on my wrist, I think it would be great. It kind of reminds me, and this might be blasphemy, of some of the elements that I like about that the Holton GMT, the Elliott Brown that I've got, it has a bit of that tan loom on matte black, very functional looking. Just just a really, really sharp sports watch. I really like the look of it. And I do like that strap I could probably do without the the that logo on the keeper, but I get why they put it there. but it slides right off you can remove it okay all right oh yeah you know what now that you mentioned that so is this the same style strap the the hook and loop but it has a keeper now is that kind of the idea it's not it's not hook and loop it's uh it's essentially a single pass nato Okay. |
| James Stacy | With a single metal sewn keeper, a standard Tudor Pelagos buckle. Okay. Like very similar to the buckle you could on the rubber strap for the 39, for example. Right, right, right. And then you can pull it all the way out of the watch and slide the the sort of signature soft keeper for the French Navy off if you wanted to, which I probably would as well. |
| Jason Heaton | I see that because none of the photos show that, so I'm glad you mentioned that. I don't see that, so that's cool. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, it comes right off. The color's really good for the strap. For me, I looked at all the images that came with it, and to be clear, Mark wrote the story. I prepped all the images so we could have the story up quickly. Even looking at it now, I have the press image on the left side of my screen, and I have a photo I shot on the right side of my screen. I don't like the image of the watch and the press thing, and I like it quite a bit in person. |
| Jason Heaton | Huh. Interesting. Okay. |
| James Stacy | Still very creamy, but it's less green than I expected from these renders. Everything's good. I think the sweetest thing of the watch is the GMT hand, and then the combination of the GMT hand with the black bezel. And I don't know that anyone else will agree with me on this one, I have a longstanding fondness for a 16710 GMT Master. That's the five-digit, smaller, 40 millimeters, most commonly known for Pepsi. Then there's a lot of people who... You see the Coke ones around, but there's a third model, and that's the black bezel. Always been my favorite. And this captures that in the most Tudor way. You still have the date, you still have the red-orange hour hand, and then you have this 24-hour bezel. And because they decided not to split it into an AM, PM, a gray, black, a black, red, a red, blue. I think it was the best decision they made about this watch was to give it a black bezel. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it looks very serious. It looks very... Feels like a Pelagos. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't get me wrong. We saw this in the comments. There's 116 comments. People are excited about this watch, or they feel something about this watch. And then we had a huge thread on the Slack. And don't get me wrong, in the comments, I understand somebody going, wait, why are you making a dive watch that's not a dive watch? |
| Unknown | Right, right. |
| James Stacy | I absolutely get it. But the Pelagos has become an entire sub-brand for Tudor. And look, I think if this predated the carbon stuff for Alinghi, I would feel differently about it. But this still feels like a travel-ready Pelagos versus a sail-ready Pelagos from Olingi. I just think this feels more core than the carbon stuff. |
| Unknown | Yeah, I agree. |
| James Stacy | It's a big watch with a big dial. You could have fit a Riat with a 24-hour scale and maintain the dive bezel. But in a world where they made this watch with a specific impetus from the French Navy and their, you know, pilot's element therein. If this is what they asked for, that's what they made. You know, for me, if we're talking about the one that I wanted, one, it probably wouldn't be an FXD to begin with, just because I love the size of the 39. Love isn't even right. This is a perfect, for me, an almost perfect watch. If you could add a 24-hour Riat and a GMT hand, we'd get even closer. But outside of that, and knowing that Tudor is in a very weird space where anything that they launch now, people get excited about it, but everyone has a little thing where like, oh, like we saw it on the Slack, people saying, this is the exact color I want. It's LHD, but it's FXD, but it's a little bit GMT Master, all kind of wrapped up into one watch. and other people going, oh, I would buy this if it had a dive bezel. I like the coloring. Other people saying, I don't care about the bezel. You could always just put 24 at whatever minute you're at and use it the same way, which is true. You definitely can. You can dive with a GMT. And then on the other side, we had people saying, oh, I love this, but if it didn't have the faux tan lume, it would be perfect. And that one I actually kind of agree with. |
| Unknown | Okay. |
| James Stacy | I don't mind the color in person. It's not like wrong in any way at all. But I do think just the white would have been, I love it so much about the one that you have and, and the 39 is that they're just, they feel more Pelagos because they're like stop signs in terms of legibility. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And the warm coloring, especially given the military application feels kind of weird. Um, or the military connection to be clear, uh, feels kind of weird to go with something that's not just, what's the absolute best, most modern, that sort of thing. But those little quibbles aside, in person, I was way happier with how the watch all kind of came together. In person, the hand is more orangey red than like a grayish red. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, if I can be that... I got to ask you, does it match the Pelagos text on the dial or is that red and the hand is orange? I can't tell. |
| James Stacy | They're the same color. It just comes down to how it's lit. The hand is brighter, but that comes with it being circular, with the way light hits things. So the hand has more presence, but I do believe that they are both orange, and I would suspect the same orange, or maybe the dial printing is slightly darker. |
| Unknown | Okay. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. But at least to my photo, clean out of the camera with color correction would be they're both orange. Okay. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. You raised an interesting point about kind of how Tudor has, I feel like they tease or they tantalize us a little bit when they, when they release new watches, they show something and we get so excited about it, but you're right. Everybody has one thing they wish was slightly different, but you almost can't resist. I almost can't resist this watch. Like I said, a GMT isn't my thing, but if you put this on my wrist right now, I would just be staring at it for days. I'd be thrilled. I would love it. I mean, I love the look of this watch. It's just, it's awesome. And I love my FXD. Like you said about your Pelagos 39, for me, my black fxd is kind of you know look i will go on record this is probably it's probably the most perfect watch in my watch box i mean it's the one i wear the most it's um yeah it's the one that ticks the most boxes you know having said that if it had a little a little bit more tan loom i'd be equally thrilled i'd be i might be even be slightly more thrilled but Tutor never quite does that. It's almost like they know what people want, and then they leave them wanting. And then they'll introduce that feature on a different watch that maybe they didn't want, but it's got that feature, you know? I'd love an FXD LHD with some tan lume, you know, or something. I love how they do that. It's a really clever thing. I don't know if it's conscious that they're doing it, or if they're just kind of going their own way and we're all kind of, you know, flailing in the wind here. But it's, yeah, it's cool. |
| James Stacy | I have this kind of sneaking suspicion that people who really like the black FXD probably wouldn't also want this. |
| Jason Heaton | Sure. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | But somebody coming from an LHD, that makes a lot of sense. It's very similar in vibe to an LHD. And to be clear, the LHD thing, if we consider that like a formula or recipe or something for Tudor, hasn't been redone until now. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this brings up an interesting thing, like this watch lines up next to the back Black Bay Pro and the Black Bay GMT, right? It's the same movement and |
| James Stacy | Same or similar. This is the new master chronometer spec, which I think is in... I could be wrong. You have to go back and double check, and I can for the story, but I'm pretty sure that the master chronometer is not in the Pro, but it is in the latest generation of the BBGMT. |
| Unknown | Okay. |
| James Stacy | But regardless, there are similar derivations of a format, right? |
| Jason Heaton | This is the Tudor GMT for me, though. If I were to go GMT from Tudor, this is the one. The Black Bay Pro is close, but as a lot of people have mentioned, it's a bit thick and it just looks like a lot of steel. And the GMT feels a little too close to kind of Rolex territory and therefore probably just continue to lust after like a 1675 or something newer. But this one feels very distinctive and it feels very purposeful. And it's got that FXD connection, which I like. And yeah, of their GMTs, this is this is the one in my eyes. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I think this model presents a pretty tough competition against the BBGMT and the Pro. No question for me, if it was between the three, it's this one immediately, based on the thinness, the Pelagos connection, all that kind of stuff. Where I think it gets a little bit more complicated is like, would you go with this? And assuming you're going to hang on to your black FXD, would you go with this or would you go with a BB 58 GMT, which is essentially a modern 16-7-10? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, this every day. Yeah, all day long. I just, yeah. To me, the Pelagos family is... It's the move. It's the move for Tudor. Yeah. It doesn't, it's not hearkening back. I mean, it is, I guess, like you mentioned, this could be the Pelagos does have a feel of like an old Snowflake sub or something. But yeah, Like it's just such a modern distinctive thing. And when they came out with the Pelagos, we were also taken with it and still are all these years later. And they just keep iterating it. And yeah, this is the one. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I really like that the Pelagos has become kind of a sub-brand, much like the Black Bay has. I would have a really tough time spending my own money trying to pick between this and a BB-58 GMT. If you took standard Pelagos 39 coloring and then put it on a BB-58 GMT, you can take my credit card now, essentially. give me a black bezel and no like make it look like a little sub that just happens to have a fourth hand i'd be thrilled oh yeah better yet do it with a 54 to give me something more interesting oh yeah yeah like a little tiny 54 gmt would be fun when i already have a pelagos 39 they wouldn't have to compete necessarily yeah yeah i i like this i like this quite a bit i was less sure of it i would say i was very much on the fence before i got to see it in person |
| Jason Heaton | I think also with the FXD, in terms of people lining it up against some other Tudor GMTs, it's that the audience is self-selected by those that want a bracelet or a different strap. Oh, absolutely. You know, this is just, you either love fixed lugs and wearing a pass-through strap or you don't. And I happen to love that purposefulness of it and functionality, but you know, there are a great number of people that would just, this would immediately be off the table just because you can't have a bracelet. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, and I think it's the watch equivalent of like a roadster, like a car that doesn't even have a roof as an option. Oh, sure. Or let's go a step further. Not even a roadster, where usually they give you a little like piece of cloth or whatever, like a barchetta. Apologies to the Italians in the audience. which I believe means little boat, which describes, yeah, you wouldn't have a roof on it. And I think you just have less options. It's a more hardcore option for some guys, maybe you, me, that makes it more interesting for other people. You would absolutely, you wouldn't even question it. You would see the BB 58 GMT at 39 millimeters, largely the same movement, that sort of thing. Or this at 42. I think that's like, there's many reasons one person could go one way or another. They're not really competitive watches. Yeah. But just to be clear, it's the MT5652U. So it's master chronometer, META certified, 65 hours, 4 hertz. Flyer GMT, it's nice stuff. It's 4,600 bucks, so it still remains right in the price point for Tudor. And we're always really careful to make this kind of stuff clear. That is a ton of money to spend on a watch, a ton. You can get an incredible watch for three figure, easy. |
| Unknown | Actually, there's several. |
| James Stacy | right now that I would recommend and probably enjoy about as much as this. But if you're at the place where this is the level you're playing at, and you and I have worked a long time in this world, and that's the level we sometimes get to play at. I bought my 39 when I could, and you got your FXD shortly after it launched. And I think at that price point, find me something more interesting, more fun, more sporty, more flexible, like this is a travel watch that you could wear probably anywhere in the world and get no real attention while still getting an incredible experience, but not having the concern of having a GMT-Master on your wrist in London or whatever. I don't actually believe they're going to do a lot of color derivation in Pelagos like they have in Black Bay. They seem to do a couple and then maybe move on, but we're still only have 139. We still only have two, well, three, if we include LHD for the standard models. So it's not like I think if you wait a year, there'll be a different version of this watch. I hope there is. I hope there's more. It would be better, especially if the next one was a clear case back like a blank case back that I could have engraved and white over black or black over white or gray or you know some other version blue would be great right yeah yeah and I think they could do more versions but I think what they're presenting here is a pretty compelling thing I don't want to go out and buy it I have the 39 I also have a lot of jeans I'm very spoiled that way but if I was in the market, this would be on the list for sure. I think it's one of the more interesting GMTs, even if a Pelagos being an interesting GMT makes it less of a Pelagos. I'm on record. I'm okay with less Pelagos. I've got the 39. It's the down spec model, 200 meters instead of five, smaller. It doesn't have the cool clasp. I'm okay with it because I still think they make an incredible everyday watch. I like having a nice modern watch, and I think that these FXDs continue to play into that space. And I think this is a super successful release. And if you're not sure about the color, the bezel, that sort of thing, God bless Tudor and the few other brands that will put the watch in a store the day it launches. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. So like last Thursday, you probably could have gone to your nearest Tudor. And look, I get it. Not everybody lives near one. I would have to drive about 40 minutes to get to a Tudor retailer. but you could probably have gone into the store and at least seen it. Maybe you couldn't buy it. I don't know. But you probably could have seen it. And I think it's important. Again, if somebody wrote to me and they go, I'm trying to pick between a 39 and FXD GMT, I go, well, the 39's known quantity. It's black over white. Yeah, the dial's a little bit shinier. The bezel's got a different finish to it. So it's nice to see. But you can see that in photos. The coloring of this one, unless you already own an LHD, and I don't think they're identical. I just think they're close. The LHD was more green cream. If that makes sense, this is more like white cream. Such a dumb sentence. One of the dumbest I've ever said. But I think with that one, you would need to... It's probably not even close to the dumbest I've ever said. Just a weird sentence. But with that one, I do think you would have to... It makes more sense to see it because I had an entirely different reaction. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | It's very much, it feels very FXD. You can't get away from that case. The size has to work for you, but a compelling watch and kudos for Tudor to yet again, kind of, how do you even explain it? Like they nail what people expect, but also don't. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. Right. |
| James Stacy | And then leave you hoping certain things and then do something else on the other side. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And then leave you hoping for something slightly different. And then lo and behold, in six months or a year, they will do just straight white or they'll, they'll kind of lose the, you know, the French military brand. and come out with something slightly different. |
| James Stacy | Maybe that's a good way of kind of summarizing how I feel about it in that if this was the BB-58 GMT, I'm actually waiting to see what the next colorway is. With this watch, I don't think there's a reason to wait. If this is the sort of watch that you want, I think you'd be very happy with it. And if the color just flat out doesn't work, then yeah, I suppose you could wait. But I didn't find it to be to be as sort of statement worthy in person as it was in the render, which I feel, I guess I've said that about, what, 40 times already. But yeah, that's the new Pelagos FXD GMT AKA Zulu time, et cetera. I think it's a pretty cool thing. It's not cool enough to make me stop wearing probably my favorite watch in the world right now, which is the 39, but I'm super keen to see where they continue to take the Pelagos. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And, and really fun to get your really super fresh take on it. I mean, you literally stepped out of the car and got on the microphone so that it's neat to kind of hear that first impression. That's great. |
| James Stacy | All right. So how about some final notes? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely. I have, I have two, so I'll go first. My first one's more of a public service announcement actually. And that is I'm on the email list from my beloved dive fin brand Force Fins. And they, Look, this is a polarizing brand of diving fins, force fin. Some people, the people that own them and love them, like me, just swear by them. And I think they're the best fins in the world. Some people just think they're silly or maybe haven't tried them or whatever, just they aren't their thing. But Um, I just got this sad email saying times are tough and we are finally closing up shop. And so they have put up a kind of last chance, uh, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, I don't even know if you call it a sale because I don't really see sale prices. They're just, they're just saying, look, we have, let's see, what does he say here? He says there are 150 pair of force fins on the shelf. Once they are gone, there will be no more. And I've, I've actually, I got a message from a friend this morning saying, if you don't, didn't know force fins going out of business and I bought three pairs just to, just to keep Just to keep and if I don't end up using them all you know I can sell them on eBay someday or something and there are that kind of fin I mean when I was diving with Sylvia Earle In Mexico a few years ago She had a custom pair of red ones that she called her ruby flippers that Bob Evans made for her and signed signed over to her and I believe the pair exists in a museum that somebody posted in slack recently a pair of her fins and Navy SEALs have been known to wear them. I just love them. I mean, anybody that goes diving with me always comments on my fins and I'll give them the whole kind of spiel. I'm an evangelizer for force fins. But that's my public service announcement. If you ever have had any interest in picking up a pair of force fins, this is your chance. And I'll throw a link in the... I'll paste this link into our notes so we can put it in the show notes. But yeah, check it out. Because once they're gone, they're gone. Well, here's a question for you. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Should we buy Force Fins? Like the company? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, yeah, really? Well, I don't know. I mean, just get a little conglomerate together on Slack. Yeah, seriously. Yeah, right. Yeah. Kind of like buying Phoenix NATO straps or something like that. Yeah, exactly. Like, you know, it's a start. Buy all these defunct, weird silencers. |
| James Stacy | I mean, the drama with Phoenix is insane. I'm attempting to dig into that. That's very complicated. We're not being flippant about that scenario. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | if what Carl from Gas Gas Bones is sharing online is accurate, very sad, and also very difficult to totally follow. I'll put that in the show notes in case people don't know that story. I'm digging into it. It's pretty fraught to try and cover it, but we'll do what we can. But yeah, so force fins closing up, that's a thing. When I see those fins, I know them from your photos. That's what I think of. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, well, I'll get to my second one after you. You can give us yours. |
| James Stacy | Mine's actually a super quick one. I believe I made a final note a year ago when Special Ops Lioness launched on Amazon Prime. Well, second season is now out. So if you aren't the type that just keeps your various television subscriptions going annually. You wait for something you want to watch. If you share my taste in paramilitary and special forces and intelligence community dramas, and you don't mind a much more American heavy touch, on the topic than, say, A Slow Horses. Lioness is incredible. The first two episodes are wild. It's Taylor Sheridan, so if you know, goodness, Mayor of Kingstown and Tulsa and Wind River, the movie which we've talked about before, and also, of course, Yellowstone, and it goes on quite a bit. I'm a big fan, but you need to understand that his shows have a certain level of almost unrealistic intensity |
| Jason Heaton | That's a good way to put it. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | I absolutely love that they have a paramilitary special forces drama that's led by a woman. You know, Zoe Saldana is not exactly who you think of for special forces. You know, you know, somebody managing a lioness program, but she's incredible. And I think even better in the first two episodes of this season than she was in any single episode previously. And Taylor Sheridan shows up, and I didn't realize Taylor Sheridan had just apparently, by the looks of it, taken every bit of testosterone that was available to him. I was wondering about that. He's about three times the size and looks like he's made out of bratwurst, so good for him. The show's really intense. It's hyper violent. If you I think if you like Yellowstone, you would understand the tone of the show in that it has these weirdly sweet, like familial moments that are contrasted by just extreme violence, gunplay, all of that kind of stuff. If that sounds cool. Check out season two of YNS. I would say the first two episodes were as good as any single episode from the first season. So a good sign. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. I'm caught up as well. I've enjoyed that. And I actually went back and watched the first season again, just to kind of familiar, re-familiarize myself. |
| James Stacy | I didn't realize you had dug in and I'm not, I promise this isn't a spoiler, but her, when they get to the base and I don't need to say more than that. And then her exploding on everybody at the base. |
| Unknown | Oh, yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | You know, like, oh, this is yeah. If this is the tone of of Saldana's character moving forward. I'm so deeply in. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And then that whole sequence of them leaving Mexico, a big nod to Sicario built in there. Yeah. Just really, really, really. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Intense. Very intense. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Good stuff. So yeah, that's that's my that's my tip. I love this kind of stuff. I'm a complete sucker for it. I assume if you listen to Film Club, you'll understand. But yeah, that's that's the that's my one of the ones I'm pretty happy about. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, good one. I also have my my second note is also a watch recommendation, not wristwatch, but as in viewing. And it is after Antarctica. So I think I included this in the final note a year or two ago, possibly. Um, this was a documentary film, uh, largely, well, entirely about the history and career of, uh, the polar explorer, Will Steger, who I'm proud to call something of a, if not a close friend, at least a friend. He's from Minnesota. Um, met with him a few times. He's just a real hero of mine. He led the first expedition to cross Antarctica, kind of the long way, by dog sled back in 89 and 90. Among other things, he's done a lot in the North Pole as well. extraordinary individual and this was a movie made by a woman that I had met named Tasha Van Zandt who directed this and it's just an extraordinary story about Steger and his career with some great footage from those earlier expeditions kind of sliced in with some voiceovers and interviews with him currently. And anyway, the short answer here is it's now available to stream. It wasn't for a very long time. You had to like go to a film festival or see it in a theater somewhere. It is now available on like Apple TV and Amazon, etc. And we'll throw a link in the show notes just to afterantarctica.com slash watch, which has kind of the different options you can click on and go check it out. So I strongly encourage it. You know, if you're into the kind of stuff we do and some of the folks we've interviewed in the past, I think it'd be right up your alley. So check it out. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I didn't realize this was fully streamable, let alone for $5. That's the easiest five bucks I'm going to spend in November. Give me something to watch on the plane tonight. This is great. |
| Unknown | Yeah, cool. |
| James Stacy | And then for all of those who are wondering if we're going to talk about endurance, we're working on it. We've got some ideas. Sit tight, we'll do what we can. But hey, that's an episode. We've got roughly an hour in here. This will be the other thing I do on my flight tonight. Either before or probably before or after Antarctica. As confusing as that sentence was. But hey, thank you so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to any of the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly. Maybe even grab yourself a new TGN Sinado or access to the Slack. which will give you some insight on the new Pipette 8 sort of merch drop which kicks off today. Please visit TheGreyNado.com. And Music Throat is Siesta by JazzArt via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Henry David Thoreau who said, It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. |